Chapter 5: It’s nice to be wanted

Chandra woke me in the morning with tea and some food. Thankfully, she hadn’t let me sleep in this morning. I wanted to talk to Sergeant Robin and leave him with a get out of jail free card before we left.

“Will you bring me my backpack please?” She nodded and left me to my morning ablutions before breakfast. Chandra brought my pack to me while I ate. I opened it and retrieved a ballpoint pen and a notepad. Chandra had seen both of them before and I explained their usages, not that I let others know of their use.

I spent some time drafting surrender for Sergeant Robin and his garrison. I expected that Fairview would not be able to clear the massive amount of debris before winter and I couldn’t stomach the idea that they might starve or freeze to death from a lack of food and firewood. The two garrisons were nearly impenetrable with just a small amount of men to try and take over the passes in the fall or winter. They were just too well defended.

I intentionally made the offer so that I was the one that they would be surrendering to, not to the Kingdom of Roses. I saw the need of some good troops and this might be the perfect way to acquire some. If they refused my offer of employment, than I would let whoever ended up running the Kingdom side of the garrison handle both the garrison and the men.

I showed what I wrote to Chandra, and after a bit of interpretation of my writing skills, she looked at me strangely.

“What about my father, they should surrender to him?”

“Your father has troops, I will need some that are loyal to me and I like Sergeant Robin.”

“Why do you think that they will be loyal?”

“Because of Kern. They saw me risk my life for his and then healed him. Also, I would be with them in the fighting, not in some far away keep. They respect me as a leader for that and as a warrior from my bout with you and Dina. Besides, I have a good feeling about him.”

“I’m not sure that they will surrender to me, Fairview might make a concerted effort to clear the path to get supplies to their men or they might believe that they would have better luck with your father than me. Some won’t join us simply because they have family at home and will want to return.”

I finished and had Chandra lead me to Kern, I wanted to check on him before we left. Coincidentally, or maybe not, we found Sergeant Robin talking to Kern.

“Morning, men.”

“Milord,” they chorused.

I sat on the stool on the other side of the bed from Sergeant Robin, “We are leaving shortly and I wanted to see how you are doing Kern.”

“Sister Emily said that I would keep the leg because of you.”

“Good, I’m glad. Make sure that once you are able to walk on it that you exercise it as long as the pain doesn’t get out of hand.”

Sergeant Robin nudged him, “Yes, Milord. Thank you for saving my life, Milord.” That sounded scripted, but I didn’t mind.

“Welcome soldier, just don’t make a habit of it and we’ll be fine.”

“Huh?”

I stood and smiled at him, “Don’t worry about it. Just get healthy soon, I am sure that your sergeant here doesn’t need you loafing all winter.”

“Yes, Milord. Thank you, Milord.”

“Sergeant, may I have a word, before we leave?” He nodded a little wearily but led me to the office that he shared with the other sergeant.

Dina caught up with us before we made to his office asking how long before I was ready to go. I glanced at the direction of the carriage and Sister Emily waiting impatiently for me.

“A few minutes should be fine.”

“Huh? What’s a minute?”

That’s right. Sigh. I hated their way of keeping time.

“How about five hundred heartbeats?”

“Oh, ok, Milord,” and jogged back to her teacher.

Robin waited for us to enter and closed the door behind us. I handed him the letter that I neatly folded. He opened it and slowly read what it contained. I had forgotten that most people either couldn’t read or read only certain words.

“I can’t surrender to you. What do you think I am, a turncoat?” Ah, I hoped that he would take it better.

“When the snows come and you are cut off from your side of the pass, left without food and firewood, I offer you a way to survive. You don’t have to accept now. I will leave word with the Mayor at Ironwood to come and get me if I am proven correct that the pass has yet to be cleared before the snow falls in earnest. It’s possible that you will be able to dig your way out before the snow falls, but given the amount of debris that was in covered the path I don’t believe that anyone is getting through before spring. Maybe not until after planting season ends.”

“Oh,” I saw him think about my insight of the pass not being able to be cleared in time to get their next provision shipment. “Thank you, Milord. Good journey, Milord.”

“Good luck to you too Sergeant. If you need me, just send word,” he nodded and we left the soldier thinking troubled thoughts.

The crisp morning air felt especially refreshing after that long hard rain. “Morning Sister, morning Postulant. I hope that you slept well. If I remember correctly this is not a pleasant crossing. The path narrows uncomfortably at the peak for a while.”

I hadn’t told them anything that they hadn’t already known. Sister Emily stated that she had made the trip a few times before. “Good, you can lead then,” I grinned at her which she ignored, but led anyway.

I made sure that Hector and Armand had everything ready, Hector informed me in that quiet competent way of his that they did.

Finally, we were leaving Fairview and going home. I missed Megan and Yolanda, I expected to do so for a long time to come. But Fairview was not home.

Thinking of the Kingdom of Roses as home sounded strange but felt right. I didn’t see ever returning to my old world as a possibility, so I adopted this one and this particular kingdom as my own. The trip over the high narrow pass scared me even more this time since I already knew what to expect. No guardrails kept bugging me, but even Chandra didn’t make fun of me through the worst of it since any wrong step would have been our last. No trees or jutting rocks to save us if we fell has us all on edge. Except Hector, I don’t think that anything short of him actually falling off of the cliff would get him to change expressions.

Maybe not even then.

The three day trip through the mountains completed without any more mishaps. I watched the exercises that the girls participated in along the way, but wisely did not join. Watching them spar confirmed that as aggressive as Chandra was, Dina was even more passive. How she got this far I didn’t understand. The defense that she wove was equal to Chandra’s offense, but Sister Emily couldn’t get her to mount an effective attack. Between the two of them they were closely matched although Chandra did score much more often than Dina.

Sister Emily must have got tired of their futility and dressed them down after one match that neither came close to touching the other. I found a stump to lean against, and even though the dedicated Priestess of Kassandra was too far away for me to overhear what she said to them, I could lean back and watch her work.

Using Chandra as the target, Sister Emily had Dina attack over and over again. Once when Chandra relaxed her guard giving Dina an easy score, Emily smacked my student hard on the back of the head. Resetting them up in the same situation again to see if Dina could bypass Chandra’s guard with her trying harder to defend.

Dina couldn’t, but then I didn’t not expect her to. From what I could see, Dina needed at least a year to get her confidence raised high enough for her to commit to an all out attack, even in sparring. She had the most of the skills, just not the right attitude.

Chandra had a great attitude when it came to fighting, she flowed from defense to offense readily and recognized which happened to be the best at the time. Experience would make her exceptional. By the time, Chandra would be more than ready to take on anyone with any type of weapon or weapons.

I just hoped that we never had to face longbows or shields.